Abstract: The dynamic model of a robot arm with both joint and link flexibility is developed for the manipulation of a constrained object based on the absolute coordinates. The forward dynamic model is derived according to the kinematic and dynamic constraints between the operated object and environment. When the desired trajectory of object and its contact forces with environment are selected as boundary conditions, the inverse dynamic model is developed. A reasonable input for a specified task can be obtained from the proposed inverse model. The forward dynamic model can be used for numerical simulation. The advantage of the new method is illustrated through an example of a 3R robot arm with joint and link flexibility.

Key words: Constrained motion, Dynamic modeling, Flexible robot arm, Trajectory tracking